Inari and Ixil had been wandering for quite a few days now... But she had split up from the leopard in order to "divide and conquer." He was going hunting up further North, she in the South, and they would drag their kills to a rendez-vous site. However... Things weren't going so smoothly.

Inari was typically a great huntress, but today, almost everything was getting away form her. "I just can't figure it out..." the lioness muttered to herself, steel-blue eyes to the ground. She stood, catching her breath after yet another failed lunge after some smaller ungulate prey that had taken a sudden turn away from where she was driving it. In fact, it had jumped off at an angle, brushing her ear with its hoof. "I don't get it," she repeated between pants.

However, a small and perfectly logical reason for the failed attempt sat in the grass, and she popped up as soon as she felt the timing was ok. Midoriko had wandered out of her mother's sight for now, and found herself pouncing about in the green grass, happy as happy could be. Actually, she had been chasing after a grasshopper. Then there was the sound of hoofbeats. She jumped up out of the grass to make sure she wasn't going to be stomped on, and as it turned out, she was about to be stomped on!

In a last-ditch effort to get the thing to turn around, she squealed an alarming shriek that freaked out the beast, which did as she had hoped- it turned around. Gravity pulled her back to the ground, hidden in the tall grass, before she got the opportunity to see the lioness who would have caught her prey if it weren't for the juve. It was only when the stranger started talking to herself that Dori could tell she was even there!

Inari had caught her breath and was looking to the horizon when a little voice spoke up. "I know exactly why you didn't catch that one!"

The adult nearly jumped out of her skin, not expecting to see a bright green cub saunter out through the tall grass. She stared wide-eyed at the thing as it continued, "I scared it off! It wanted to trample me, but I said 'Oh no you don't!' with my mightiest roar and sent it off running, terrified! See, so you shouldn't have driven it near me!" She said proudly.

"Is that so. You know, funny thing, I didn't hear anything coming from around here. I think you're just fluffing up your ego," Inari said bluntly. Gods, a cub ruined her hunt. She could whap the thing! The cub frowned at that- gave her what Inari assumed to be the meanest glare the cub could muster. "Tell me, little one, where's your mother?" Inari demanded, wanting to lug the thing back to her parents before she got annoyed enough to whap her.

"I don't think you're very nice," Dori stated simply. "And my mother is of no concern to you. You know, my mother's quite a bit larger than you- and I don't mean fatter. I mean all around, you're definitely smaller than her." Indeed, the juve only had to look up a little to meet her eye-to-eye. After another growth spurt, she herself would be of equal height to the lioness before her. Though, judging by her proportions, this was a full-grown individual before her. She smirked, glad that she had come up with something witty enough to counter with. "So I wouldn't go calling me the little one."

Meanwhile, Inari was brewing, really rather quite angry at this little cocky creature. "If I could find your mother, I would have a few choice words for her," she growled. "Look cub, you're getting on my nerves. And I'll bet your mother is fatter than me! Besides, I can get into small places because of my size, you'd be lucky to be as small as me when you grow up, you little green freak!" she defended the best she could, arguing with a cub like a cub. And yet, that didn't bother her.

"Ant!" Dori countered, rather quite enjoying this.

"Pain-in-the-a** hunt spoiler!" Inari spat.

"Ooooooh, you said a bad word! Momma says to not say that word, you dirty mouthed cat!" Midoriko gasped, putting a paw to her mouth as if to stop herself from saying something equally heinous.

Inari caught her tongue, the last thing she wanted was for the cub's mom to show up all of a sudden to find her in a shouting match with a strange lioness. "Fine," Inari said. "We're not getting anywhere with that anyway." How had they even started fighting?

She wasn't sure, but the green cub seemed overly ecstatic. "Does this mean I win? Oh, it must mean I win, you gave up!" she said, pointing a claw up at the adult. Inari looked around for her leopard companion before admitting defeat to the cub. "Yeah, sure. Just do me a favor, promise you won't tell your mother you heard a bad word from me, k?"

"Hmmm...." Dori said. "Perhaps, but that won't come for free. See, I want something from you for that, it's not much, but..." she said, taking the upper paw. She had won after all, right? To the victor go the spoils, but there were no tangible spoils. "How about you take me to somewhere really cool nearby, that seems fair. Especially since I can't see over the grass."

Inari didn't like the sound of that. Stalking about with a cub that wasn't hers when she didn't know where the mother was was quite troublesome- especially if said mother showed up. It would be an easy sight to misjudge. "Murrrrr... I will on one condition, sweetie. You tell me where your mother is- is she far? Will she be looking for you?"

"Nah, she's plenty far, and she won't come looking for a while now. She's probably napping right about now, actually," she said matter-of-factly. "So whaddya say, are you in or out?"

"I'm in, but it's my idea of a cool place, not yours, ok? Oh, my name's Inari, by the way. C'mere," the lioness said as she grabbed the green cub by the scruff.

"And I'm Midoriko, Dori for short. Nice to meet ya!" she said happily in the cub-by-the-neck position, acting like no yelling had ever happened. She looked forward to getting to the cool place before going back to her mom- today would be a fun day.

For Inari, she almost wanted to hunt down the girl's mother to demand compensation for cubsitting for the day- she would be stuck with the girl until nearly sundown, and wouldn't get in one hunt.